Ground-based simulation of the Earth's upper atmosphere oxygen impact on polymer composites with nanosized fillers
Abstract
The improvement of durability of polymer composites to the space environment impact is a very important task because these materials are considered currently as very promising type of materials for aerospace engineering. By embedding various nanosized fillers into a polymer matrix it is possible to obtain composites with required mechanical, thermal, electrical and optic properties. However, while developing such materials for operation in low Earth orbits (LEO), it is necessary to study thoroughly their durability to the impact of atomic oxygen (AO) of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, because AO is the main factor that causes erosion and damage of spacecraft surface materials in LEO. Ground-based simulation of AO impact on polymer composites was performed on a magnetoplasmadynamic accelerator developed at Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University. Polymer composite samples which were prepared as films of 30-50 mum thickness with different amount (3-20 wt%) of various inorganic and organic nanofillers including nanoparticles of metal oxides and carbides as well as polyethoxysiloxanes and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), were exposed to hyperthermal AO flow, and mass losses of samples were estimated. Changes in the structure of composite surface and in material optical properties were studied. The experiments demonstrated that embedding nanosized fillers into a polymer matrix can significantly reduced mass losses, and the good dispersion of fillers improves AO durability in comparison with initial polymers [1]. The computer simulation within the developed 2D Monte-Carlo model demonstrated a good agreement with the experimental data [2]. Special attention was given to the study of AO impact on aligned multiwalled CNTs and CNT-based composites [3]. Some results of computer simulation of hyperthermal oxygen atom interaction with CNT and graphene as well as with polymers are presented to discuss elementary processes which occur in nanostructures under AO impact [2,4]. REFERENCES 1. K.B. Vernigorov, A.Yu. Alent'ev, A.M. Muzafarov, L.S. Novikov, V.N. Chernik. J. Surf. Ingestig.-X-Ray Synchro. 5, 263 (2011). 2. E.N. Voronina, L.S. Novikov, V.N. Chernik, et al. Inorg. Mat.: Appl. Res. 3, 95 (2012). 3. N.G. Chechenin, P.N. Chernykh, E.A. Vorobyeva, O.S. Timofeev. Appl. Surf. Science, 275, 217-221 (2013). 4. E.N. Voronina, L.S. Novikov. RSC Adv., 2013, 3 (35), 15362.
- Publication:
-
40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014cosp...40E2309N